News, Tips & Tricks

Ever seen your favorite business suddenly take a nosedive? In a fast-changing world, the best deaf-friendly businesses aren’t one-hit wonders. They continue being ah-mazing, even with new management, product changes, or when a new chef changes your favorite dish.

A busy week is taking place in Hartford, the state capital of Connecticut: The 54th Biennial National Association of the Deaf (NAD) conference is off to a roaring start. With a total of six days (including pre-conference meetings), over 100 workshops, 2,000 attendees, and 300 hotel rooms blocked out for them, the conference presents a sizable - and exciting - hospitality challenge.

There's enough variations of love to pack into February's short-but-sweet 28 days. One sometimes forgotten: : Biz-entines. There are millions of businesses listed on deaffriendly’s platform, and over 3,000 reviews written to date. From shopping mom-and-pop businesses to large corporate chains, you're giving countless businesses a loving gesture with every dollar you spend.

“A deaf person walks into a bar.” It may sound like the start of a classic joke formula, but this what actually happens all over the world daily, along with: “A deaf customer walks into your retail store,” or “a deaf taxpayer walks into your tax prep office,” or “a deaf driver walks into your auto body shop.”

Baltimore is a town of depth and breadth; fanning out from a picturesque harbor, it boasts both the culinary delights of Little Italy and its culinary love affair with crabs. The historical town is known for jobs in science, engineering and technology as well as its proximity to one of the most foremost teaching hospitals in the nation. And for several days in August it was the host to one of the largest Black Deaf gatherings in the country.

Our first Deaf-Friendly Certified Businesses were announced in the spring and now we’re eager to share more about each of these stellar Businesses. Out of dozens of businesses who came close, each of these businesses made the final cut, meeting a rigorous criteria below, created by Deaf reviewers and deaffriendly staff.

You’re having a day… you overslept, spilled your coffee, misplaced your keys, and got a parking ticket. Lovely. Then, the clouds start to part; you go into a business and receive amazing customer service. The staff is dreamy, makes eye contact, smiles at you, knows some signs and you leave feeling a million times better. All of a sudden the day is looking better and the world is a more deaf-friendly place.

We’ve all been there. It’s the eyeroll. Or the exasperated sigh. Or the way they walk away and laugh while pointing at you with another co-worker. Maybe it’s even the outright refusal to serve you or provide you with accommodations. However you experience your deaf-challenged moment, it never feels good. Your stomach churns. Your break out into cold sweat. You can feel that rage start to simmer.

Lets face it, it’s tough getting a negative review or negative feedback. No one likes it, whether you’re an individual or a business. While eighty percent of reviews on deaffriendly.com are positive, the deaf-challenged experiences Deaf consumers face sometimes lead to reviews that are three stars or less. We encourage businesses to reframe the situation and see negative reviews as a wonderful opportunity to gain an edge, get information about Deaf consumers, and do concrete things to create a deaf-friendly experience in the future. In fact, the most successful situations we see are a deaf-challenged business taking a negative review and turning it into a positive one.

We go to restaurants to celebrate milestones, to break bread with our loved ones, to create memories over a meal, and of course to eat good food. Deaf restaurant patrons are no different. When a restaurant understands the needs of Deaf customers and is willing to accommodate them, it elevates the experience from an average experience to an extraordinary one.

Most Recent News & Announcements

Everyone is still talking about how successful the NAD 2016 conference was in Phoenix, Arizona: especially in regards to the equal access at the convention center, the hotels, the surrounding restaurants and bars. All of that is because of the training that they got from deaffriendly.

Actor John Maurcere, known for his role in SuperDeafy, displayed his usual charm and dynamic energy on screen as he engaged real-life Deaf people (not actors) and their real-life #deafchallenged and #deaffriendly stories.